Last night there was some discussion between some of my Spanish and Colombian friends about why the letters z and c (when followed by e or i) are pronounced /θ/ – like the th in thin – in most of Spain, apart from in Andalusia and the Canary Islands, and as /s/ in the rest of the Spanish-speaking world.
Pronouncing the c and z like this is known as ceceo/cecear in Spanish, which also means to lisp, and pronouncing them as /s/ is known as seseo/sesear.
There’s a legend that a Spanish king, specifically Pedro of Castile, spoke with a lisp, and that this pronunciation became fashionable among the rest of the population. While it’s true that Pedro did have a slightly lisp, as mentioned in the chronicle of López de Ayala, he reigned in the 14th century, and the /θ/ pronunciation emerged during the 16th century. Moreover, a lisp would apply to all instances of the /s/ sound, not just those written with c or z.
In the 15th century c before e and i, and ç before a, o and u was pronounced /t͡s̪/, z was pronounced /z̪/ and s was pronounced /s̺/, or /z̺/ between vowels. By the end of that century c/ç was being pronounced /s̪/, which later became /θ/. The pronunciation of the other letters changed as well, although not in all parts of Spain.
Spanish people began colonising the Americas in the 16th century, and many of them came from southern Spain, where the /θ/ sound was not used. To this day their descendants do not make the distinction between s, c and z that is made in the Spanish of Spain.
More details can be found on:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_Spanish_coronal_fricatives
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language
Seseo is spelled seseo not seceo. Guessing you can figure out why.
So far I’ve learned Spanish from 2 resources: Duolingo and Pimsleur. Both teach Latin American Spanish, with seseo and yeismo. I would have preferred Spanish pronunciation because, well, I’m missing some of the info.
It’s especially a problem in the case of Pimsleur, because this way I don’t learn the correct spelling.
@Randy:
I have read that Spanish dialects can be classified into 3 groups, with respect to pronunciation of S, C & Z:
i. seseo – where S, C and Z are all pronounced /s/ (as in The Americas);
ii. seceo – where S is pronounced /s/ and C, Z are pronounced /θ/ (as in most of Spain);
iii. ceceo – where S, C and Z are all pronounced /θ/ (as in some rural Andalusian accents).
Actually, I stand corrected – there is no such thing as seceo :-). The proper term for group ii. is distinción.
‘Seceo’ actually fits ii to a T, doesn’t it?